Two
dimensions: (1)Diagnosing the errors of ‘idealism’
and the degree to which idealistic/religious paradigms make us
weak/unfulfilled.(2) Suggests how life and the world might still have value
for us once we have refused to resort to supernatural or metaphysical ideas.

Ethics:
The christian ethic encourages characteristics that
are counter to real life. It breeds pity, fatalism and misery, which
prevent people from achieving fulfillment, pursuing power.

Advocated
instead an individual subjective ethical platform

In this
section Nietzsche attempts to ensure that the
history of mankind is split in two (before and after Christ)…

Political
institutions should allow individuals the freedom to self-determination, to
power. They shouldn’t impose a metanarrative or belief system that explains
everything. Should protect skepticism

3a. What
does the author regard as the distinctive problems and possibilities in the
Modern Age

Christianity
is a modern problem for Nietzsche (pg.33)

Modernity
defined by excess, by a false idea of “progress” that lends linearity to
history

Christianity
stands in the way of becoming who you are, by instilling values of decadence,
indolence, fatalism, pity and misery

People are
weak, too quick to accept an idealistically or aesthetically pleasing view of
reality, rather than a realistic one (11)

What type
of human should be bred? (pg.4) Modern society and the christian
ethic breeds weak, unfulfilled, pitiful people

Liberty: The ‘kingdom of God’ is not something that you
wait for; it does not have a yesterday ora day
after tomorrow, it will not arrive in ‘thousand years’-it is an experience of
the heart;it is everywhere
and it is nowhere…”(32).

Liberty,
and life itself, is the pursuit of power, which is rendered impossible under christian/idealistic/supernatural institutions

“What we
do is the product of “freedom of the will” in the superlative metaphysical
sense.” (pg. 18)

Respect
for yourself; love for yourself; and unconditional freedom over yourself… (pg. 3)

Freedom
from those who proclaim absolute truth (38)

Equality: People should be free to pursue power, everyone is equal to judge for themselves.
Christianity is a very equalizing institution but, it
concentrates power on few (priests) that at the end it
doesn’t allow for everyone to be equal. pg.26

pg.40

“Equality
for all” is a idealistic concept of the modern age.
Individuals are all different and it is unrealistic to expect equality of
outcome. Only the strongest

Fraternity: “contempt for humanity” is “blacker than the
blackest melancholy” (34) but the reality of humanity is mostly mediocre

Dangerous
because it produces convictions that prevent individuals from realizing their
own subjective actualization. People should be free to establish their
own radically subjective conceptions of reality, and social organizations
tend to prevent such radical skepticism.

4. what are the strengths of the author's argument?

Sarcasm
works on his favor to make his arguments even stronger, laughter in general

Brings
ample historical context for his critiques of both the development and the
current state of christian institutions

Appeals to prevailing scientific views of nature
in critiquing abstract “godliness” or “other-worldliness”